Obama’s 284 Drone Strikes in Pakistan

A map of every reported drone strike in Pakistan.

CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, NV - AUGUST 08: An MQ-9 Reaper flies by on a training mission August 8, 2007 at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. The Reaper is the Air Force's first "hunter-killer" unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and is designed to engage time-sensitive targets on the battlefield as well as provide intelligence and surveillance. The jet-fighter sized Reapers are 36 feet long with 66-foot wingspans and can fly for as long as 14 hours fully loaded with laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles. They can fly twice as fast and high as the smaller MQ-1 Predators reaching speeds of 300 mph at an altitude of up to 50,000 feet. The aircraft are flown by a pilot and a sensor operator from ground control stations. The Reapers are expected to be used in combat operations by the United States military in Afghanistan and Iraq within the next year. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Ethan Miller

One of the most controversial aspects of U.S. foreign policy received mere seconds of discussion in the 90-minute final presidential debate.

“We already know President Obama’s position on this,” said moderator Bob Schieffer. He turned to Mitt Romney. “What is your position on the use of drones?”

“I believe that we should use any and all means necessary to take out people who pose a threat to us and our friends around the world,” Romney responded. “The president was right to up the usage of that technology and believe that we should continue to use it to continue to go after the people who represent a threat to this nation and to our friends.”

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Romney agrees with the president, and so do most Americans, but majorities in almost every other country disapprove of drone strikes, according to the Pew Research Center. Drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia have damaged America’s reputation in strategically important countries.

Critics argue the drone strikes are an overextension of executive power, kill too many civilians, and breed more terrorism. Proponents, including Obama and Romney, say the drone strikes are necessary to prevent terrorism. The CIA recently proposed to expand the strike program into other regions.

In June Slate published a map, based on data from the New America Foundation, showing the locations and kill estimates of reported drone strikes in Pakistan, where most of the drone strikes occur. Since that map was published, the media have reported 22 more, for a total of 284. The map above includes these additional strikes.

Update: A bug in this map on Friday showed extremely high estimated kill counts for non-militants in the rollover tooltip. The tooltips have since been corrected. Thank you to Slate readers who alerted us to this problem.